Harry Potter and the Girl Who Lived
by MidnightCatastrophe
Summary: Begins with missing moments from DH and continues after the Final Battle. Ginny has a scar from the Chamber but it might mean more than she thought. The true meaning of soul mates,dreamwalking, and what really happened between Ron and Hermione. HG and RH
1. Prologue

A/N: This story is deticated to Parker and Rachel. I couldn't live without you guys. Thanks for putting up with my insanity and helping with my stories.

Parker- I hope this is what you were looking for!

Rachel- Thanks for all your feedback! 

Sorry for the uncharacteristically short prologue the next chapters will all be over 1,000 words though.

Prologue

"_Ginny, listen. I can't be involved with you anymore. We can't be together." _

"_It's for some stupid, noble reason. Isn't it."_

"_Voldemort uses people his enemies are close to. He'll try to get to me through you."_

"_What if I don't care?"_

"_I care."_

"_I never really gave up on you. I always hoped."_

"_We could have ages...months...years, maybe..."_

"_But you've been too busy saving the wizarding world. I knew you wouldn't be happy unless you were hunting Voldemort. Maybe that's why I like you so much." (HBP 646-647)_

And that was it. Ginny had not shed a tear. She had not tried to convince him not to go. She wasn't angry with him for breaking up with her. She understood.

Somewhere in the back of Harry's mind, he realized she had always understood. Sure, she had always called him out for being a git and told him off when he was out of line. Ands as much as she hated it, she has always understood his "hero complex" as she called it. His pathological need to finish what his parents had started had started; to ensure that their deaths were not in vain. He never had to explain this to Ginny, he knew with just one look into her deep brown eyes that, without needing any words, she had understood.

Maybe that was why he liked her so much.

_No. That was why he loved her. _


	2. Unsaid and Unspoken

_**Chapter 1**_

Moody was dead.

George's ear was blown off.

So many of the people he had loved the most had nearly died, and all because of him. But he wouldn't let anyone else he loved be hurt. _He refused_. Before Mrs. Weasley and Lupin and Ron, Hermione...and Ginny love was just a meaningless word; now he understood it and felt it. He would not put them in danger anymore.

But they forced him to stay. Even knowing as they did that each second longer he stayed with them brought them into greater danger. So he was stuck in Ron's tangerine bedroom, staring at the Chudley Cannons' keeper saving a goal and then winking out of the poster over and over again.

Harry welcomed sleep, although it brought nightmares of the worst sort with it. The sort of nightmares that felt completely real, but in the back of your mind you knew you had to be asleep, but no matter how hard you tried you could not wake yourself up. Tonight was no different. Harry knew this particular nightmare well, for it had plagued him unrelentlessly each night since Dumbledore's funeral. He woke with a start, bolting upright and drawing his wand. The only realization he could draw from the empty blackness was that he had woken from one nightmare only to find himself battling a darker, inescapable nightmare: reality.

"Harry" A voice next to him whispered. He whipped his head around and searched frantically for the wand he had dropped just seconds before. A warm, soft hand touched his arm. Harry did not have to say "lumos" to know who it was.

"Ginny, what are you doing here?" Harry asked the redhead kneeling at the edge of his bed.

"I heard you from my room. I think I was the only one awake though, no one else would have heard - Weasley's can sleep through anything," Ginny assured Harry, gesturing to a snoring Ron who had not so much as batted an eyelash since she had come in.

"Nightmares again?" She asked gently, although she didn't need to hear the answer to know the truth.

Harry nodded.

"Come on, then. I have just the thing." Ginny picked up Harry's hand and led him out his bedroom door into the hallway. When they reached the stairs Ginny threw her arms up to stop him. She held her index finger in front of her lips as a silent warning. "Shh..."

"Thought you said 'Weasley's can sleep through anything,'" Harry teased.

"We can," Ginny assured, nodding proudly. "It's in our blood - the thing is, Mom's a Prewett. I swear she could hear a pin drop in her sleep!" Harry chuckled and Ginny shushed him again. "Now, the stairs creak horribly so watch carefully and step _only where I step. _Got it?

Harry nodded quickly while Ginny expertly maneuvered her way down the stairs. Harry stepped more gingerly paying close attention to Ginny's footfalls on the honey colored wood. At the bottom of the staircase Harry raised his eyebrows at her.

"What? Fred and George aren't the only ones in this house who can cause mischief - as you very well know."

Ginny was referring to their walks around the Black Lake every Friday night after Slug Club meetings. They always found some way to sneak out and ended up staying out way past curfew each time, but thanks to Harry's invisibility cloak and the fact that the twins taught Ginny nearly everything they knew (including some rather useful distractions) they had never gotten caught.

Before Harry realized what was happening, Ginny had seated him at the kitchen table. She sat beside him with a quart-sized carton of ice cream and two spoons. Harry tore the cover off the carton and plunged his spoon into it. He recognized the smell: his favorite flavor, chocolate chip cookie dough. Before he went to Hogwarts, he always used to sneak a spoonful or two when the Dursleys were out.

Harry and Ginny sat in comfortable silence, licking ice cream from their spoons and leaving the other to their own thoughts. It was another one of those moments when they knew exactly how the other felt. In times like these, words just weren't necessary.

Harry studied Ginny carefully. "You're not going to try to convince us not to leave after the wedding?" Harry asked cautiously.

Ginny's eyes did not leave her ice cream as she slowly shook her head.

"You're not going to try to get us to talk about where we're going?"

Ginny shook her head again but met his gaze as she placed her spoon on the table. "You don't need me bothering you, too. If you wanted to tell me you would have told me already." Ginny paused, "You know I'm always here if you want to talk."

Harry nodded and smiled sadly. Ginny locked eyes with Harry and held his gaze for a minute before speaking again.

"Harry, please don't do this again." Harry attempted to interrupt but Ginny continued speaking before he had the chance to open his mouth. "This is what happened after Sirius died. You have to stop blaming yourself; you have to stop pushing us all away."

"Ginny, you don't get it. The longer I'm here, the more danger you're in."

"We're Weasleys! We're in danger whether we're hiding you here or not."

"Ginny, you don't understand-."

_"I don't understand?" _Ginny repeated bitterly. Harry's words had ignited the temper she inherited from her mother and tinged her cheeks a color that rivaled her hair.

"Harry James Potter," the infuriated redhead whispered fiercely. "You can go and break up with me because of that...that _hero complex_. You can leave me here alone while you're off on that _stupid saving the world thing. _And you can break my heart one more time because _that's what you always do_," Ginny spat, each syllable colder and harsher than the last. "_But don't you __**ever **__tell me that I don't understand_ - because you bloody well know that I'm the only one that does."

Ginny's voice had risen to an octave and volume than challenged even Mrs. Weasley's most enraged outbursts. She spun on her heel and stormed towards the stairs.

"Gin, please wait. Ginny..." Harry caught her wrist and gripped it tightly despite her attempts to wrench it away. "Ginny, that's not what I meant. Ginny, _listen to me."_

Ginny turned slowly to face him but refused to look him in the eye as she continued her tirade.

"Just because you're Harry bloody Potter doesn't give you the right to tell me what to do," She raged. Her eyes flashed with fury, and her face was flushed, causing her hair to shine an even darker shade of scarlet.

_How is it possible that she looks even more beautiful when she's angry? _Harry mused, every second cursing his hormones and the fact that he thrived on impulse as he grabbed her waist and pulled her to him, pressing his lips to her soft rose-colored ones.

Initially, Ginny was too shocked to respond to the unexpected contact, but soon, to the surprise of both, was kissing him back. After a minute, she slowly pulled away.

"If we still can't be together..." Ginny whispered.

Harry would have none of her protests. He captured her lips in yet another kiss, efficiently silencing her tongue.

After a moment, Ginny once again pulled away. "If we still can't be together," Ginny closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Then you have to promise not to kiss me like this."

Ginny slipped from his grasp and retreated slowly up the stairs, turning before she could see her pain mirrored in a pair of emerald green eyes.

A/N: This chapter was a bit angstier than expected...Next chapter is either Harry or Ginny's POV in first person - I think I might switch off with a chapter in third person/both perspectives and one from Ron or Hermione in between. In the next few chapters we'll find out what Ron and Hermoine are up to, Ginny will show Harry her scar from the Chamber of Secets and they'll find out that their scars share a few secrets of their own...! Thanks for reading! Please review - it only takes a second and is much appreciated!


	3. A Moment Too Late

_**A/N: To Rachel, who always finds a way to reign in my runaway commas and puts up with my bouts of sugar-induced delirium. And , as always, to Parker. **_

**_Disclaimer: Due to the fact that I do not live in England , am not richer than the Queen of England and do not have enough genius to come up with this - all that you recognise belongs to J.K. Rowling. I just manipulate the characters to do my bidding. _**

**_Sorry for the long gap between updates, I had serious writer's block on this one.

* * *

_**

_**A Moment Too Late**_

_Hermione's POV_

It is amazing how you could know someone for years and just wake up one day and see them in a completely different light.

It was quite shocking actually on that summer day before my fifth year when I realized I was in love with my best friend.

It wasn't actually that simple. Nothing with Ron was ever that simple.

We had fought the night before. He walked into the room I shared with Ginny when I was in the middle of writing a letter to Viktor. I failed to comprehend Ron's innate aversion to Viktor. Ron practically kissed the very ground Viktor walked on when we were at the Quidditch World Cup, but as soon as Viktor came to Hogwarts for the Triwizard Cup Ron acted like he was the enemy.

The letter inexplicably infuriated Ron, sending him off on a half-crazed tangent shouting about Viktor not being good enough for me.

It was one of the worst fights we ever had. When I managed to force Ron out the doorway, I finally took Viktor up on his offer to stay with him and that night I packed my clothes and was off to spend a week in Bulgaria.

It didn't go quite as well as I had hoped.

Don't get me wrong, I had a very enjoyable time. It just wasn't the fairytale escape I had hoped for.

On my second night there, I was hopelessly homesick for the Burrow. This didn't surprise me; The Burrow felt like home, I missed it whenever I was away. It was what I missed the most that surprised me.

Sure, I missed staying up all night talking to Ginny, I missed Mrs. Weasley's cooking, I missed how when I was with them I finally felt like I _belonged_.

But above all, I missed _Ron_.

I missed everything about him.

From the way he shoved every crumb of food in sight into his mouth to his crazed obsession with Quidditch to his unwavering faith in the Chudley Cannons. I missed the way he would effortlessly slaughter me and Harry in chess and the look on his face when Ginny shouted "checkmate" before Ron had the slightest clue it was coming.

I missed the way his smile could make my heart race and my knees weaken.

I missed the way his mere presence made time slow and the entire world melt away.

I missed the way he made me feel...real. Like maybe I was worth something after all.

When I was with Ron, I felt like I was more than just a muggleborn. Like when he looked at me he saw me for who I was, not just for my bushy hair and buckteeth and all of the books I hid behind.

With Ron, I never had to hide.

* * *

_Love. _

A simple four-letter word, only one syllable - but then _why was it impossible for me to understand?_

Why was it impossible for anyone to explain why some people would spend their entire lives looking for it only to be disappointed by it, while others seemed to have it all along? I read about it in books, but no matter how much I researched it I could never quite wrap my mind around the concept. In theory, it seemed...well, nothing short of amazing, but in all practicality, when it came to me...

I was afraid of it.

I was afraid of trusting someone that much.

The thing about prople was that they always let you down. I had learned that much when I was a child. As soon as you had expectations, you made room for someone to let you down, and trust would melt into dissapointment.

But I had trusted Ron, and he had never let me down.

But that didn't mean I _loved_ him.

The only thing I was sure of was that I needed to get back to Ron where things made sense.

Before I was even fully aware of what I was doing, I had lugged my trunk into the fireplace where I shouted a frenzied apology and good-bye to Viktor and dipped my fist into the pot of floo powder sitting on the mantle.

By now, Viktor had heard my feeble attempts at what I had hoped to be a graceful exit, had rushed into the sitting room and was currenty staring at me like I was a wackspurt or a nargle or another one of the ridiculous creatures Luna's always going on about come to life before his very eyes.

"Herm-o-ninny..." Viktor protested, blinking at me increduously.

"The Burrow," was my only response before I felt the flames glow green and envelope my body.

"Oof," I groaned as I stumbled unceremoniously out of the Weasley's fireplace and landed flat on my face on the slightly charred carpet.

"'Mione?" A voice as familiar as my own asked in disbelief as he hoisted me upright and back into a standing position.

"Ron!" For once, I bit back my uncertainties and wrapped my arms around him.

A tiny part of me (okay, a rather large part) was scared to death that we would have a repeat of that last disasterous attempt at embracing in our third year - when Ron _patted my head - _but to my relief (and I have to admit: slight astonishment) he slipped his arms around my waist.

Just as I had begun to realize just how right it felt to be held in Ron's arms, a twin pair of whistles rent the air. Ron's head snapped up, heat rising on his cheeks and swiftly spreading to color his ears.

"Aww... Look Gred!"

"Yeah, Forge?"

"Ickle Ronniekins is growing up!" George jeered in a perfect impersonation of a proud Molly Weasley.

"Shut up," Ron groaned, but Fred and George mercilessly ignored his protests.

"You mean he's realized that girls _don't actually_ have cooties?!?"

"I think he's realized that Hermione's actually a girl!"

"George..." Ron begged the twins to end their teasing.

"Aww... little Ron's got a girlfriend," They chorused.

I could tell from the warmth spreading over my cheeks that they probably matched Ron's, which had turned scarlet in frustration.

"It's just Hermione," Ron objected.

"Ron and Hermione sitting in a tree..." The twins sang.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Ron's voice was rising at an alarming rate.

"...K-i-s-s-i-n-g..."

I felt like I should say something to aid Ron's argument, after all, I had come back to clear the air between us, not to be the cause of a new fight. I could try to pretend I didn't have feelings for him or lie and declare that our feelings were merely platonic. I could try to imagine what I would say if I wasn't standing here wishing that Ron _would _say he cared about me as more than a friend, but words were lost on my tongue as Ron spoke.

"_We're just friends!" _Ron nearly shouted. "Hermione is not my girlfriend, we are - and always will be -_just friends_."

His words rang out with such finalty that they seemed to linger in the air. I felt my last hopes for Ron loving me slip through my fingers, much like a child watching their balloon float to the sky and realizing moments too late, that they didn't hold on tight enough.

"_Just friends." _Ron's statement reverberated through my mind, each syllable cut deeper, stinging with unendurable reality. Tears blurred my vision, twisting and contorting shapes until even Ron was an unrecognisable stranger.

But I would not cry.

Not in front of _him. _

Not now that I had fled from Viktor and run into Ron's arms with my delusional dream that maybe today he would wake up and realize how he really felt about me.

Not now that he had declared he never would.

I knew that biting my cheek would not keep my tears contained underneath my eyelids any longer, so I did the only thing I seemed to know how to do anymore: I turned and ran.

I heard him calling after me, but willed one foot in front of the other. I would not turn around and explain what was wrong. I would not make it that simple for him.

"Hermione..." I closed my eyes and tried to ignore him as I ignored the tears shining on my cheeks.

He could not take back his words; he could not make everything alright.

It was too late.

A/N: Please Review!


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